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31
This is especially the case in Mitcham, so much so that
in the last month of the year a movement was inaugurated
with a view to secure the adoption of the third part of the
Housing of the Working Classes Act, and the Surveyor was
requested by the Parochial Committee to report whether there
was a need for more houses, and what the probable cost of
supplying them out of the rates would be.
The best available statistics appear to point to a considerable
deficiency of house accommodation. The ascertained
population of Mitcham at the censuses of 1881 and 1891 was
8,407 and 10,758 respectively (excluding public institutions),
and the growth which took place during that decennium
may be said to have been a normal growth, and at least
fully maintained since 1891. The prevailing impression is
that the population h^s, if anything, increased more rapidly of
late, but assuming that the ratio of increase has remained
the same, the population would have numbered 12,550 at the
middle of 1897.*
Now, the average number of persons living in each house
at the last census was a fraction over five (5^2), but in 1897
there were only 2,283 inhabited houses in Mitcham, which
means accommodation, on a similar basis, for only 11,870
persons. In other words, it would seem as if nearly 700
persons are now living in houses in Mitcham, who, if building
operations had kept pace with the needs of the population,
would have found accommodation in other houses, or, to put
the situation in another way, there appears to be a deficiency
of between 130 and 140 dwellings.
Statistics, however, are apt to be misleading, especially
when six years have elapsed since a census ; but, in this
matter, individual experiences confirm the above conclusion,
for complaint is universal that houses are very difficult to
* This would be the Registrar-General's estimate of the population.